Move reflects recent influx of residents
 
By Charlie Chapple
New Orleans Times-Picayune
Copyright 2007 The Times-Picayune Publishing Company

St. Tammany Parish's 12th Fire Protection District near Covington soon will be hiring nine new firefighters, thanks to a federal homeland security grant that will help pay their salaries over the next four years.

"We're very excited," said Ray Newton, administrator for the district that serves the unincorporated areas of the 3rd Ward around Covington. "We've been wanting to do this for a while, but didn't have the money."

Increased staffing for the department is crucial because of the rapid residential and commercial development in the district and the influx of new residents since Katrina, Newton said.

"Calls for emergency services have increased dramatically in the last 18 months," he said.

The department now has 30 firefighters and operates on an annual budget of $3 million mostly generated by 25 mills in property taxes. It has five fire stations, including four manned by full-time firefighters.

The Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response, or SAFER, grant will give the department almost $800,000 over the next four years toward salaries and benefits for nine new firefighters.

The department will get $270,000 in 2007; $250,000 in 2008; $167,000 in 2009; and $106,000 in 2010. The district's costs for the firefighters in those years will be $30,000, $63,000, $167,000 and $106,000. By 2111, the district will be required to pick up the entire costs for the firefighters of $372,000.

Without the grant, "we could not have hired nine people at this time," Newton said. "Maybe, we could have hired three."

The district will have additional revenues to continue paying for the firefighters when the grant expires, Newton said.

The district, in anticipation of the grant, recently held a career day for prospective firefighters, and 30 people applied for civil service tests to qualify for the new positions, Chief Darrell Guilott said.

The district plans to conduct interviews with qualified candidates early next year, Guilott said.